Porn, drinking, harassment –- just another day at work?

Pat Healy

Monday

Aug 27, 2007 at 12:01 AMAug 27, 2007 at 7:06 AM

In May, Bobby Blair made a quiet exit from the San Miguel Power Association after four years as general manager. Board members would not say why he was leaving; Blair would only say, “It’s time.” But a printout of an e-mail sent on May 31, 2005, might provide a glimpse of the real story behind Blair’s departure.

In May, Bobby Blair made a quiet exit from the San Miguel Power Association after four years as general manager. Board members would not say why he was leaving; Blair would only say, “It’s time.”

But a printout of an e-mail sent May 31, 2005, might provide a glimpse of the real story behind Blair’s departure.

In it, a topless blond woman holds a piece of paper that reads, “I Love Bobby Blair.” Above her picture is one line of text: “Yes, I had a good weekend. BB.”

The sender is identified as Bobby Blair. The recipients are a host of SMPA employees, from the operations chief and member-service manager to the technicians who run the co-op’s power substations.

And according to charges made by former SMPA employee John Taylor, the e-mail is only a part of the problems at San Miguel Power, the electric cooperative that serves 8,800 customers on the Western Slope.

A letter sent this April by Taylor’s lawyer alleges sexual harassment, racist comments and drinking in the boardroom at the cooperative.

The letter, sent to the SMPA board, says Taylor was fired from his job as chief operating officer “because he protested and made it obvious he did not agree with the hostile work environment.” It seeks an out-of-court settlement for Taylor and threatens a lawsuit if SMPA doesn’t settle.

The two sides are negotiating but have yet to reach a settlement. No lawsuit has been filed.

“It’s still a case in progress,” said Gary Yamnitz, the co-op’s president.

Yamnitz said that the e-mails were not the only reason for Blair’s departure, but “that’s what brought it to a head.” He declined to say anything more, citing possible lawsuits and privacy concerns.

Blair did not respond to several messages left at his home and on his cell phone.

Blair left the co-op May 16, taking six months’ pay in severance. No one at San Miguel Power would discuss why Blair had been allowed to quietly resign with a half-year’s severance package.

At the time, Blair merely said it was time for him to leave.

“I’m going to head for something less stressful,” he said in an interview this spring. “I’m not going to bear any ill will.”

A lawyer for San Miguel Power said the co-op’s board had “no inkling” of any inappropriate behavior until the letter and e-mail printouts were sent this spring.

The co-op’s attorney, Jim Link, said that San Miguel Power had already conducted an investigation using an independent company. According to Link, the e-mails had indeed been sent on Blair’s company e-mail address, but he said the other charges were shakier.

“Some of the things in the letter were found to be true,” he said. “Almost all of the other allegations were put in dispute.”

Last week, the Planet and Norwood Post received copies of the April letter from Taylor’s lawyer and a sheaf of printed e-mails. The packet bore no return address, only a postmark from Grand Junction dated Aug. 20.

Taylor could not be reached for comment, and his attorney, Diane S. King, would not discuss the case.

But the e-mails themselves seem to speak volumes. The Planet could not independently authenticate the e-mails or ask Blair whether he had sent them. But SMPA officials said they were real, and they were sent from company computers.

They are forwards with a frat-boy tone and X-rated content attached.

One shows Christmas ornaments hanging from a woman’s breasts. Another e-mail explains “Why men like lesbians, but women don’t like gay men!” It compares a photo of beautiful nude women with one of fat naked men.

In each e-mail, “Bobby Blair” was the name in the “From” field, and a host of San Miguel Power employees were named in the “To” field. They are dated from May 2005 to June 2006.

The letter from Taylor’s attorney raises a host of other detailed allegations. Among them:

- Employees were pressured to drink on the job. Some drank on the job and then returned to work or drove company vehicles home. One employee went on a beer run in an SMPA vehicle.

- Employees with disabilities were discriminated against.

- Female employees had to endure a barrage of sexist comments about their breasts and intelligence.

- Employees had after-hours parties on SMPA property and “on numerous occasions, Mr. Taylor arrived at work in the morning to find beer and hard liquor bottles and cans littering the office.”

- On July 14, 2006, during an all-night employee bender at SMPA offices, a backhoe was crashed into an SMPA building.

But Link said that the atmosphere at SMPA was nowhere near this Animal House melee. Workers would sometimes invite one another for drinks after work, Link said, but the cooperative’s investigation found no evidence that any employee had been pressured to drink.

Link said there was also no evidence that anyone had driven a backhoe into an SMPA building.

And at no point, Link said, did any SMPA employees reach out to him or board members to report pornographic e-mails, complaints of sexual harassment, on-the-clock drinking or any other inappropriate or unsafe behavior.

On Wednesday, San Miguel Power updated its company policies, apparently in direct response to these allegations.

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